Colorado State’s Pierce Hornung passes the ball while lying on the court against Jewuan Long of Murray State.

Sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair.

That’s what Colorado State men’s basketball fans must be thinking when they receive word that senior guard Jesse Carr reinjured the ACL in his left knee this week and his college career is over.

A native of Ainsworth, Neb., Carr had been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA after initially injuring the knee on September, 20, 2012. That forced him to sit out the 2012-13 season. He sat out the 2009-10 season with a strained groin.

As a true freshman in 2008-09, Carr averaged 8.8 points and appeared to be a building block for the Rams program. But injuries prevented him from reaching his on-court potential.

Last year, the Colorado State point guard authored one of the worst games of his career on this, an NCAA Tournament stage against Murray State: 0-6 from the field 0-2 from 3-point range. Zero points, five turnovers.

So yes, there is a little redemption that’s a part of his mindset this time around.

“I just didn’t play well. I thought I played terrible, honestly,” Green said. “So I think I have personally a lot to prove. I’m excited for the opportunity and the challenge to compete again and play better than I did last year.”

He’ll be able to do so tomorrow night against Missouri, on a near-healthy right ankle. Green, who has been recovering from a sprain, said “I feel good. I practiced today and I felt as close to normal as I have in a long time. I don’t know what percentage, but I feel a lot better. The pain is going away. Tomorrow we don’t play until late so I’ve got another full day of rehab before we play again.”

He’ll go against speedy Missouri guard Phil Pressey in one of the key matchups in the game. Teammate Wes Eikmeier smiled when asked if Green mentioned he wanted to play better in this year’s tournament.

“I don’t think he’s brought that up a lot, maybe just wanted to forget about it,” Eikmeier said, with a slight chuckle. “I’m sure something like that is sticking with him. Our whole team did not play very well last year. I don’t know if the whole situation got t us last year, we were surprised or whatever. This year we’re here to win, it’s just a completely different feel than it was last year.”

That starts with Green, who was second on the team in scoring (12.8) and led the team in assists (3.8). He’s the floor general, a player that coach Larry Eustachy said they can’t do without, especially this time of the year.

“It definitely left a sour taste in my mouth,” Green said. “I don’t really care about scoring. I want to impact the game as much as I can and give our team the best chance to win. I think I just need to be aggressive. It doesn’t really matter if I’m putting the ball in the basket. For me, the biggest focus is on defense and just helping the team win in as many ways as possible.”

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My update on Colorado men’s basketball heading into conference play and a Pac-12 conference preview gets published Sunday. Some highlights:

* Did you know Colorado is fourth in the RPI? It only beat one Top 25 team — and Baylor is no longer ranked — but it has a lot of quality wins in the top 50: Murray State, Colorado State, Baylor.

* Colorado sold 6,666 season tickets, the maximum allowed by the ticket office. It averaged 10,257 fans a game heading into Saturday’s rout of Hartford. That would be a season record.

* Yes, they’re 10-2 but the Buffaloes are still young. Their two losses were at Wyoming and Kansas. Granted, they’re two undefeated teams but the Buffaloes must learn to do more than hold serve at home and they looked overwhelmed at Kansas.

* Not one Pac-12 team even received a vote in last year’s final AP poll. This season, Arizona is ranked third and a legit national championship threat.

* UCLA lost two starters from last year when center Joshua Smith and Tyler Lamb — and is much better. Coach Ben Howland now has more set rotation, he doesn’t have to wait for the 305-pound Smith to lumber downcourt and more players are happy. The Bruins looked like one of the nation’s best teams in Friday’s overtime win over Missouri.

* The sleepers are Stanford and Oregon State. Stanford has four starters back from last season’s NIT title team and Oregon State, also with four starters back, nearly won at Kansas.

*

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*** CU did not commit a turnover during the first six minutes of the game but eventually registered a season-high 23 turnovers.

*** The top rebounders in Thursday’s NCAA Tournament games were from the state of Colorado, with Colorado State’s Pierce Hornung getting 17 in the loss to Murray State in Louisville, Ky., and CU’s Andre Roberson snagging 16 against UNLV. Marquette’s Joe Crowder matched Roberson’s total in a win over BYU.

Colorado State's Pierce Hornung passes the ball while lying on the court against Jewuan Long of Murray State during the second round of the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on March 15, 2012 in Louisville, Ky.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The time is now. All of Colorado State’s hard work has led to this – finally getting on the court in the NCAA Tournament. The 11th-seeded Rams play the tournament’s first game this morning, against sixth-seeded Murray State.

So how do the Rams win? Like this:

Rebound, rebound, rebound: If there is one area that can be a clear advantage in the Rams’ favor, it’s this one. Murray State has shown clear deficiencies in rebounding this season, and that can be a killer in a tournament scenario in two ways: A) allowing extra possessions for opponents on the offensive glass; B) being limited to fewer attempts on your own offensive possessions.

The Racers have allowed an astounding 11.7 offensive rebounds per game this season. If CSU gets at least 11 extra possessions because of offensive rebounds, this will be a much easier game for it to win. And they have the player to help get that done in forward Pierce Hornung.

Murray State guard Donte Poole was so close to playing for Colorado State, he was actually on campus for summer school back in 2007.

It, ultimately, was short-lived as academics caused Poole’s hasty exit before he ever played a game for the Rams. Five years later, he’s become something just short of a star for the Racers, the 11th-ranked team in the nation and a No. 6 seed, prepping to face CSU on Thursday.

Poole and Murray State head coach Steve Prohm shared a light moment after the matchup was announced on Sunday. A couple of players, including Poole, were waiting to be interviewed for Prohm’s television show.

Prohm, who had already finished his portion of the show, paused.

“I was leaving, and I looked at Donte and I said, ‘Kind of ironic, isn’t it?’” Prohm said. “We laughed.”

Prohm raved about Poole, who averages 14.2 points. 3.7 assists and leads the team with 62 steals. Poole was named the MVP of the OVC Tournament. Prohm also paid one very big compliment to CSU coach Tim Miles.

“You couldn’t be happier for a guy like Donte Poole to have the season he’s having,” Prohm said. “I don’t know much about the kids that coach Miles has in his program there, but if he’s recruiting guys like Donte Poole, he’s doing things the right way and he’s recruiting the right kinds of kids.

“Donte Poole represents our program the right way. He’s got great character, he’s got great toughness, he’s got great leadership, he’s accountable, he’s going to graduate. And he’s worked his way through this program, he’s played behind very good guards for two or three years. He’s got his opportunity to step up this season and he’s embraced it and he’s taken advantage of it and he hasn’t looked back. For him to be named conference tournament MVP was really a compliment to him.”

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

Sunday night and Monday morning were filled with film study for coaches across the nation whose teams will play in this week’s NCAA Tournament. Colorado State’s Tim Miles and Murray State’s Steve Prohm have already spent countless hours studying the other’s team.

These are Prohm’s initial thoughts on Colorado State in advance of Thursday morning’s NCAA Tournament game between the sixth-seeded Racers and 11th-seeded Rams.

“Starting to get a good feel for them, they are a very good basketball team. We’re going to have to play extremely well to beat them. They shoot the basketball extremely well. We defend the 3-point line extremely well all season long and we’re going to have to do that Thursday to beat Colorado State. All of four of their guards shoot the basketball extremely well. They don’t put a guard out there that doesn’t make threes at a high percentage.

We’re going to have to defensive-rebound well. We’re going to have to contain them from the 3-point line, we’re going to have to be great in transition. We’re going to have to play very well. They come out of a great league. They are used to playing very athletic teams – San Diego State, UNLV, New Mexico. So, they’re very, very battle-tested and coach Miles is a very good coach.”

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

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BOULDER – So, Denver Johnson, aside from the obvious of being on the winning side, how did Colorado’s Brian Cabral do in his first game as interim head coach?

“What Brian did last week was do what I think a head coach should do, and that’s not a guy that coaches the players, but a guy that coaches the team,” Johnson said Tuesday following practice.

I thought Johnson, CU’s offensive line coach, would be a good one to ask. He was on the sideline during the game, usually within arm’s reach of Cabral. And Johnson has been a head coach – three years at Murray State and nine at Illinois State.

“Brian did a great job of getting his arms around his team in a very troubling time — in some sense refocusing them, redirecting them in some instances, changing some things up,” Johnson said.

“He did a great job coaching the football team and letting the assistants coach the players. I really applaud him. I thought it was just an outstanding job on his part to be exactly what this football team needed him to be last week.”

Players admire Cabral, Johnson said.

“They understand what kind of man he is. They understand what kind of heart he has,” Johnson said. “There’s just an innate respect and admiration for who and what he is. They have responded to him. I don’t think they could have responded to him any better.”

“In a very difficult time, he showed them how to press on and drive through it.”

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.